The picture that you can see above was posted in facebook some time ago. It shocked me and many others and of course a conversation started. While most people agreed that it was a cruel crime that had left those marks on the girl’s cheek and that physical punishment should be stopped around the world, there were also different voices that advocated physical punishment. The picture and posts were later removed but I had saved the text and the image because I had the plan to write a blog post about it.

I was not very surprised to see that the main of these voices was Indian. In India unfortunately domestic violence is still very common. In many families parents believe that they have to teach their children discipline, good behavior and manners by hitting them. I wrote before about the experiences that we have made with the children at our school. We fully refuse any kind of physical punishment but the families sometimes believe that it would be necessary. The parents come to us and ask us to beat their children if they are not attentive or learning well. Corporal punishment in Indian schools has led to many serious injuries and even cases in which children were disabled or died. It is not only in school, though, children get beaten at home, too!

One big reason and explanation given by many and also in the facebook conversation is that physical punishment is even recommended by religious scriptures. This is something that I will always condemn and which should not be an excuse to hit your child or also your wife. Yes, some scriptures even say that men need to hit their wives. I would like to burn every single scripture that states such a thing if that would help stopping physical abuse in homes. It doesn’t matter whether that is a Hindu scripture, a Muslim scripture or a scripture of any other religion. Whoever wrote that, was a man who enjoyed that women and children cannot resist and are physically weaker. Why would you not beat a grown-up man? Because he would hit you back! So you would also only hit your son as long as he is small. When he is twenty or thirty years old, you don’t hit him anymore. It is simply not right, you only hit because the other one is weaker than you!

There is however another problem with that: if you hit your children regularly in order to make them obey or behave, they will simply get used to the beating. Someday they just won’t care about it anymore and do what they want anyway. It does not help! When a child is naughty and the parents tell us to hit him in school because he won’t listen any other way, it actually proves that the beating does not help at all! You hit him for everything he does wrong but he still keeps on doing those things. So it did not help, he just accepted that he would get hit! And this is what he will do to those who are weaker than him, too!

It happens in schools to children but it also happens at home, to children and also women. I have seen that in my childhood and teenage time in the homes of neighbours, friends and relatives. Sometimes we were just sitting in our home and we heard noises. The noise of hitting and a woman screaming or crying. It happened often and in some houses even regularly.

These actions happen behind closed doors, inside rooms where nobody can see what is going on. In public, the same men show themselves as very reputable people. They have a great image in society and only their wives and children know what this man takes out on them when nobody else is there.

There are two kinds of people who hit. Those who hit because they enjoy it and those who hit because they cannot control themselves and their emotions. Those who enjoy it have an itching in their fingers and they feel good and as though they have done something beneficial whenever they hit their children or wives. In this case the beating often becomes a regular habit and I would actually call these people mentally sick. Their family has to suffer from this. The other category are those who get very angry about one thing and start hitting but don’t even realize how cruel their behavior is. When they later see what they have done, they are often shocked themselves. They regret and if they learn to control themselves, they can stop it.

I want to request any parent to learn other ways for teaching discipline to their children and any man to learn that it is not right to beat your wife. It is simply not the right way. Take the vow to never beat and not even slap your child or wife.

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I suppose these people are really sick! It is not natural to hurt other people or even animals! I think by doing this they want to feel themselves powerful or to prove something! It is terrible thing! We have to educate our children in non-violence way!

I am always very shocked about any such topic. How can a person be cruel to someone else, someone who has no other chance than to take the blows as well as possible? A woman, a child… nobody ever hits an older person for this reason: he or she is weaker than you! So why not stop before hitting a woman or child?

Thank you THANK YOU for posting this blog!! I truly feel that anyone who hits their children, anyone who is “weaker” than them, or just anyone in general really has a lot of mental problems. Those problems may have been learned by them being beaten themselves, or like you said they cannot control their emotions. I love you Swami Balendu for posting this (and many of your other postings!). Violence only leads to more violence, and to hit a child only will scar them for life…not discipline them. My parents never hit me, and I turned out to be an educated, well disciplined individual. Again..thank you for posting this!

Dear Tahnee,Thank you for your comment! I am very happy you like my posts and I fully agree that hitting a child has a negative effect for his or her whole life while a treatment with love and respect but clear rules forms an individual who knows how to show love to others but also knows where everyone’s borders and limits are.
Much love

The causes of violence and the weakening of Thought
Thinking people are weak and many are already dry, and with the thought that is dry, dry feeling, no longer feel that is the motive of the crimes, terrorism, wars, massacres, kidnappings, the assaults, the trawlers of banditry, trafficking, fire on all sides, with the Save-who can and can not know who Rational Culture,